Tracking responses to promotions

ABSTRACT

A computer implemented method for response tracking is described. The method includes obtaining one or more responses to one or more promotions, attributing the one or more responses to one or more treatment instances, with the one or more treatment instances correspond to a promotion version assigned to a group of contact entities at an execution of a computer implemented marketing campaign, and generating a response table, the response table including one or more entries, the entries in the response table being in accordance with attribution of the one or more responses to one or more treatment instances.

BACKGROUND

Promotions are specific communications made from one entity to anotherentity. The challenges in managing promotions can arise out of thevarious situations in which promotions are used. For example, marketersin the financial services, travel and retail industries may each havespecialized considerations when communicating with potential or existingcustomers. Each industry may have different types of promotions directedto communicate different types of products or services, resulting in aninfinite variety of possible attributes. All marketers produce apotentially large variety of promotions and assign them to a potentiallylarge variety of contacts. These promotions are logged and tracked forfuture analysis to improve the promotions.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the present invention, a computer implementedmethod for response tracking includes obtaining one or more responses toone or more promotions, attributing the one or more responses to one ormore treatment instances, with the one or more treatment instancescorrespond to a promotion version assigned to a group of contactentities at an execution of a computer implemented marketing campaign,and generating a response table, the response table including one ormore entries, the entries in the response table being in accordance withattribution of the one or more responses to one or more treatmentinstances.

According to an additional aspect of the present invention, a computerprogram product residing on a computer readable medium for responsetracking includes instructions for causing a computer to obtain one ormore responses to one or more promotions, attribute the one or moreresponses to one or more treatment instances, with the one or moretreatment instances correspond to a promotion version assigned to agroup of contact entities at an execution of a computer implementedmarketing campaign and generate a response table, the response tableincluding one or more entries, the entries in the response table beingin accordance with attribution of the one or more responses to one ormore treatment instances.

According to an additional aspect of the present invention, an apparatusincludes a processor and memory executing a computer program product forresponse tracking. The computer program product includes instructionsfor causing the processor to obtain one or more responses to one or morepromotions, attribute the one or more responses to one or more treatmentinstances, with the one or more treatment instances correspond to apromotion version assigned to a group of contact entities at anexecution of a computer implemented marketing campaign and generate aresponse table, the response table including one or more entries, theentries in the response table being in accordance with attribution ofthe one or more responses to one or more treatment instances.

Implementations can include one or more of the following. Obtaining theone or more responses includes entering one or more responses to one ormore promotions into an action table with the action table having a rowfor each response. Each row of the action table includes plural fieldsfor one or more audience IDs corresponding to the identity of thecontact entity of the response, at least one of a date and time of theresponse, and one or more tracking codes. The tracking codes include atleast one of a campaign code, a promotion code, a group code, and atreatment code. Each row of the action table further includes fields fora response type corresponding to a classification of the response to thepromotion, and one or more promotion attributes. Attributing each of theone or more responses includes determining whether the response is adirect response or an inferred response, with a response being a directresponse if data is entered according to the one or more tracking codesand with a response being an inferred response if no data is enteredaccording to the one or more tracking codes, and with attributingfurther including attributing the response to one or more treatmentinstances according to one or more attribution rules. The one or moreattribution rules include a best match corresponding to a single targettreatment instance fully credited for the response, a fractional matchcorresponding to N target treatment instances, wherein each of the Ntarget treatment instances are credited 1/N for the response, a multiplematch corresponding to N target treatment instances, wherein each of theN target treatment instances are fully credited for the response, and acustom match corresponding to N target treatment instances, wherein eachof the N target treatment instances are credited for the responseaccording to a pre-determined credit distribution routine. The responseis a direct response. Attributing the direct response to one or moretreatment instances with one or more attribution rules, and matching theresponse to a unique treatment instance based on the one or morepromotion attributes. The one or more attribution rules includeattributing the best match to fully credit the unique treatmentinstance. The direct type response is attributed to one or moretreatment instances with one or more attribution rules, the methodfurther including matching the response to N treatment instances basedon one or more of the one or more tracking codes and one or morepromotion attributes. The N target treatment instances include anaudience ID matching the audience ID of the response. The one or moreattribution rules include crediting a response to a target treatmentinstance of a promotion version including an audience ID matching theaudience ID. The one or more attribution rules include crediting aresponse to a target treatment instance wherein the response includes atime and date prior to at least one of an expiration time and date ofthe promotion version of the treatment instance. The one or morepromotion attributes include parameterized promotion attributes. The oneor more attribution rules include crediting a response to a targettreatment instance wherein the response includes a time and date afterat least one of an expiration time and date of the promotion version ofthe treatment instance. Generating a response tracking report from theresponse table. The one or more treatment instances include one or morecontrol treatment instances. The row includes an additional field for aproduct description field, wherein the product description field isdetermined from a values of a product table of one or more goods andservices promoted in the marketing campaign. The response type includesan audience level, the audience level corresponding to classificationsof contact entities. The action table includes a product hierarchy, theproduct hierarchy corresponding to classifications of products promotedin a marketing campaign. The treatment code uniquely identifies atreatment instance. Attributing the direct response to one or moretreatment instances with one or more attribution rules, and matching theresponse to a unique treatment instance based on the one or moretracking codes. The promotion attributes include plural values againstwhich the response can be matched.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system executing promotionmanagement software.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting the promotion management lifecycle.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the promotion management software.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are diagrams depicting a promotion template.

FIG. 6 is a diagram depicting standard attributes and custom attributesof a promotion template.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for producing a promotion template.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are diagrams depicting promotion instances and promotionversions.

FIG. 10 is a diagram depicting data-driven parameterization ofpromotions.

FIGS. 11, 11A, and 12 are flowcharts depicting the target groupmanagement process.

FIG. 13 is a diagram depicting a target group spreadsheet and a campaignflowchart.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart depicting producing treatment instances.

FIGS. 15 and 15A are a diagram and flow chart depicting contact historyand a contact history process.

FIG. 15B is a tree depicting the hierarchy of contact history.

FIG. 16 is a diagram depicting promotion list attributes.

FIG. 17 is a diagram depicting a folder tree view of the promotion listprocess.

FIG. 18 is a diagram depicting the selection of offers in a staticpromotion list.

FIG. 19 is a diagram depicting a query in a dynamic promotion list.

FIG. 20 is a general flowchart depicting the high-level responsetracking process.

FIGS. 21A to 21C are flowcharts depicting the steps in tracking directand inferred responses and the inferred responses for control groups.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, a network computer system 10 includes a server 12executing software for promotion management 14, connected through anetwork 16, to clients 18 a to 18 i executing respective clientinstances 20 a to 20 i of promotion management software 14. As usedherein, the terms “promotion(s)” and “offer(s)” are usedinterchangeably, but are limited to refer to specific marketingcommunications that are typically provided in a marketing campaign.Although the network computer system 10 is shown including the server 12running promotion management software server process 14 and clientsystems 18 a to 18 i running the client promotion management software 20a to 20 i, it is understood that the server software 14 and the clientpromotion management software 20 a to 20 i can run on the same machines,e.g., the server 12. The client systems are used to interface withpromotion management software instances 20 a to 20 i to produce andmanage promotions. The server 12 is connected to an application database22 that stores information required by the promotion management software14 to operate (e.g., system table data) and a marketing database 24 thatstores the company marketing (e.g., customer or prospect) and relateddata and can be used to drive marketing campaigns. The application andmarketing databases 22 and 24 may run on the same machine as server 12or different machines. Databases 22 and 24 may be in differentdatabases, on different machines, or they may be separate schemas in thesame database on the same machine. The clients 18 a-18 i are connectedto the server 12 by the network 16.

Referring to FIG. 2, promotion management software 14 is shown. A userdefines one or more promotions 30 that the user wishes to use in amarketing campaign. The user defines the contacts 31, which can bepersons or entities (e.g., households, businesses, accounts ofindividuals), or both, for the marketing campaign. The promotions areassigned to the contacts 32. The promotion management software 14 (fromFIG. 1) runs the marketing campaign 33. The promotion managementsoftware 14 logs the contact history of the marketing campaign 34, tomaintain a record of which contacts received what promotions. Logging ofthe contact history 34 also facilitates assessing the campaign'sperformance, as discussed below.

After the promotion management software 14 runs the marketing campaign33, the software scans relevant customer activity 35 and appliesresponse attribution rules 36 to the customer activity. The responseattribution rules, as will be discussed in detail below, determine whichpromotions receive credit for customer activity. The promotionmanagement software 14 logs the response history 37. The logged contacthistory 34 and logged response history 37 data are used to assess themarketing campaign's performance 38.

Referring to FIG. 3, the promotion management software instances 20 a to20 i (in FIG. 1) include software processes 40 a to 40 f such as, forexample, processes that produce promotion templates, promotion lists,and processes that manage contact histories and target groups. As usedherein, groups refer to collections of contacts, typically individualsor other entities, whereas target groups refer to groups of entitiesthat are intended recipients for specific marketing communications,e.g., promotions, and control groups refer to groups of entities thatare typically randomly sampled from the target groups and withheld fromreceiving the marketing communications to evaluate the effectiveness ofthe marketing communications, as will be further discussed below.Control groups are used by marketers for comparison purposes against thetarget group. This can be a hold-out control group which receives nocommunication, or it may be a test/challenger group compared to abase/champion group where the test/challenger group receives analternate “test” promotion. This is also known in marketing as A/Bsplits. When control groups are used for champion/challengercomparisons, there can be many challenger groups associated with thechampion group. In either the hold-out control group or thechampion/challenger scenario (“test group scenario”), one or morecomparisons are made between promotions assigned to the control groupvs. the target group.

Process 40 a produces promotion templates and promotion instances.Process 40 b manages the design of a marketing campaign and assignmentof promotion instances to groups of contact entities. Process 40 cexecutes the marketing campaign. Process 40 d manages the contacts of amarketing campaign and logs the history of the promotions made to groupsof contacts, including members of control groups. Process 40 e producescontact lists (not including control groups) for the promotions that aidthe user in managing and optimizing the marketing campaign. Process 40 flogs and tracks the responses from contact entities and controls.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, process 40 a included in the promotionmanagement software produces a promotion template 50 that includes a setof fields that are “basic options” 52. The basic options attributefields 52 are pre-assigned by the process 40 a to define a promotion tothe promotion management software. Values of the basic options attributefields 52 are assigned to the promotion template 50 by the user(typically an application administrator). Each time the user produces apromotion template 50, the user chooses and populates attribute fieldsfor basic options 52.

The basic options include a template name field 54, a security policyfield 56, a description field 58, suggested usages fields 60, and anicon 62. Other basic option fields can be defined and included by thepromotions management software 14. The promotion template 50 is storedin a folder in the promotion management software on a computer harddrive of the client or the database for future access by that user orother users, as may be determined by the applicable security policy 56.The process 40 a allows the user to produce and store one or morepromotion templates 50. From the promotion template 50, other promotiontemplates can be produced, as well as promotion instances or promotionversions, as discussed below. The security policy 56 determines whichusers have permission to access the promotion template 50 and whatfunctions the users are allowed to perform with the template (e.g., editor retire). Security policies govern which users can access whichobjects (e.g., promotion templates or promotion instances) and thefunctions those users can perform on those objects (security policiesmay be applied per object instance or inherited from a parent object orfolder) to control access and/or enforce process. The description 58 andsuggested uses 60 fields provide further information about the templateto aid the user using these templates to produce promotion instances.The icon 62 can be used to help visually identify the promotion template50. The basic options 52 of the promotion template also can include apromotion code format 64 and a treatment code format 66. The promotioncode format 64 and treatment code format 66 are user-specified and eachis generated by a code generator customized for a particularsystem/implementation. The custom code generator includes a custompromotion code generator 68, e.g., “generator1.exe,” and a customtreatment code generator 70, e.g., “generator2.exe.” When the userproduces a promotion instance, the promotion code generator 68 generatesa unique promotion code to identify the promotion instance, e.g.,“ABC-123” based on the promotion code format 64, e.g., “ABC-nnn.”

Referring now to FIG. 6, standard attributes 80 and custom attributes 82are assigned to the promotion template. A set of standard attributes 80are included with the promotion management software. These standardattributes 80 are attributes that would be commonly used when producinga promotion template. Examples of commonly used basic options includedin the promotion template include a contact channel, a promotionexpiration date, and relevant products (used for inferred responses fora promotion). Relevant products can be a list or a query executedagainst a product table using any attributes within the product table toreturn a list of unique ProductIDs which can be used to evaluate if therecipient (or member of a hold-out control group) performed the desiredaction (e.g., purchasing product X).

Custom attributes 82 are user-defined options which can be added to thepromotion template. Custom attributes can be of various data types,including string, numeric, date/time, or currency. In addition, eachcustom attribute can allow free-form entry by the user, provide a fixeddrop-down list of values from which the user can select, or provide adrop-down list of values and allow the user to enter additional value(s)which then are subsequently available to all users (modifiable drop-downlist). The drop-down list initial values can be entered by theadministrative user when producing the custom attribute or dynamicallyqueried from a database table or flat file.

In addition to the above, a special custom attribute field can containmultiple values. The multiple values may be manually entered (e.g.,multiple string values separated by commas), selected from a fixed list,selected and/or added in a modifiable list, or specified as a queryagainst one or more fields/tables in a database or a flat file. The“related products” field is an example of this type of field where theuser specifies a query, typically against a “product table” returning alist of product identifiers (e.g., all stock keeping units wheremanufacturer=“Fisher-Price”™) for products related to the promotioninstance. Another example is a multi-valued response channel field,where the consumer must use one of the listed channel(s) when purchasingto qualify as a responder (e.g., purchase is web-based or faxed in).These multiple value fields become important in response trackingattribution (described later).

Standard attributes 80 and custom attributes 82 can either be static(fixed) attributes 84, static hidden 85, or parameterized attributes 86.Static attributes are assigned fixed values when a promotion instance isproduced. Parameterized attributes are assigned default values when apromotion instance is produced, but when the promotion instance isassigned to a group in a marketing campaign, its value can be changed.Multiple promotion versions can exist if the promotion instance wasproduced from a promotion template including at least one parameterizedattribute 86. Each permutation of parameterized attributes for apromotion instance produces a separate promotion version. The promotionattributes can be hashed to determine when a unique permutation existsrequiring the production of a new promotion version, where uniqueinstances are stored across campaigns thus reduces storage andcomputation overhead associated with a normalized history. It ispossible to produce multiple promotion versions with the same set ofparameterized attributes to optimize run time execution, since promotionversions can still be grouped by their promotion attributes duringreporting. A promotion instance produced from a promotion template thatdoes not include any parameterized attributes 86 can have at most onepromotion version, that is produced when a campaign is executed,assigning that promotion instance to one or more groups. Control overwhich attributes are static or parameterized provides a marketingorganization control over when new promotion instances are producedversus when promotion versions can be used by controlling whichattributes are parameterized. This control provides flexibility indetermining how promotions are measured and analyzed for theireffectiveness.

Static attributes 84 are constant for the promotion versions producedfrom the same promotion instance. For example, if a “Fixed-rate homemortgage” promotion template is produced with a static attribute of“closing points,” promotion instance A could be produced with twoclosing points and promotion instance B could be produced with zeroclosing points. All promotion versions A1, A2, A3 . . . produced frompromotion instance A (by varying other parameterized attributesassociated with promotion instance A) would have two closing points. Allpromotion versions B1, B2, B3 . . . produced from promotion instance Bwould have zero closing points. The promotion template can specify adefault value for the static promotion attribute that can be overriddenby the user when the promotion template is used to produce a promotioninstance.

Parameterized attributes 86, on the other hand, may vary in value,producing different promotion versions for each combination of values.Again, the promotion template can specify a default value for eachparameterized attribute that can be overridden by the user when thepromotion template is used to produce a promotion instance. The valuesspecified in the promotion instance for the parameterized attributes 86,however, are default values that can be changed by the user when thepromotion instance is used (i.e., assigned to a group in a marketingcampaign).

The static attributes 84 and parameterized attributes 86 can be orderedto control the order in which they are displayed to the user. Thestandard attributes 80 and custom attributes 82 can be hidden such thatwhen the user produces a promotion instance or promotion version fromthe promotion template, the hidden attributes 85 of the promotioninstance or promotion version cannot be seen by the user or areread-only (displays the attribute name/value, but does not allow userediting). The user can specify default values 88 for the staticattributes 84, hidden attributes 85 and parameterized attributes 86 ofthe promotion template.

As shown in FIG. 6, examples of default values 88 include “a promotionvalid from date” 90, which can be user-defined or based on the executionof a campaign (that may be implemented as a “flowchart”) separate fromthe promotion management software 14. The default values 88 can also bea “promotion expiration date” 92 that is either user-defined absolutedates, or set to expire after a certain period from “the promotion validfrom date” 90, which could be the campaign execution date (e.g., processbox run date within the flowchart executing the campaign). Defaultvalues 88 can also be promotion value 94 corresponding to a monetaryamount, or click-through uniform resource locators (URLs) 96corresponding to web-based promotions. Any standard attributes 80 orcustom attributes 82 that are used in a promotion template as static 84or parameterized attributes 86 may have default values 88 (hiddenattributes 85 are required to have default values 88). Thus, when theuser uses the promotion template to produce a promotion instance, theprocess 40 a populates the static attributes 84 or parameterizedattributes 86 with the default values 88.

Referring to FIG. 7, process 40 a producing a promotion templateincludes a user filling in basic options 100, and specifying thepromotion code format 102. The user specifies a custom promotion codegenerator 104. Thereafter, as discussed in detail below, the userspecifies a treatment code format 106. The treatment code format is usedto uniquely identify the treatment instance, which is used in contacthistory and response tracking. The user specifies a custom treatmentcode generator 108, which is used in a similar manner as the promotioncode generator 104. The user chooses which standard attributes 80 andcustom attributes 82 to include in the promotion template and specifieswhich promotion attributes are static, hidden, or parameterized 110 andspecifies the default values 112.

Referring now to FIG. 8, the promotion template 50 is used to producepromotion instances 120, 122 and promotion versions 124, 126, 128. Theuser modifies the default values of the static attributes in thepromotion template 50 to produce promotion instances 120, 122. When theuser assigns a promotion instance 120 to a group of contact entities,the user specifies different sets of values for the parameterizedattributes in the promotion instance 120 to produce promotion versions124, 126, 128. The group of contact entities can either be target groupsof contacts receiving promotions, or control groups of contacts to testpromotion effectiveness. Assigning promotions to groups is generallyperformed within a contact-style process box (not shown) of thesoftware. A contact-style process box facilitates assigning promotionsto groups over specific contact channels in an execution of a marketingcampaign. Contact channels include direct mail, contact centers,branches/stores, or email. For the user's convenience, multiplepromotions can be assigned to multiple groups within a singlecontact-style process box, designating a contact channel. Contact-styleprocess boxes are discussed in further detail below with regard tocontact history.

The user produces promotion instances 120, 122 when the user changes thevalue of one or more static or parameterized attributes. These aretreated as separate promotion instances in the promotion managementsoftware. Promotion instances 120, 122 have different promotion codes todistinguish one promotion instance from another, even though thepromotion instances may have the same name and/or attribute values.

The user produces promotion versions 124, 126, 128 when the user changesthe value of one or more parameterized attributes, as defined in thepromotion template 50. The promotion versions 124, 126, 128 have thesame static attribute values and the same promotion code. The promotionmanagement system treats promotion versions 124, 126, 128 aspermutations of a common promotion instance, for example, promotioninstance 120. The feature of parameterized attributes allows a user toconveniently produce a plurality of promotion versions having the samevalues for static attributes (including basic options).

Referring to FIG. 9, to illustrate the above features, promotiontemplate 130 is shown having basic options of a promotion template name132 of value “College Card,” and a promotion code format 134 of value“ABC-nnn.” The promotion template 130 also has standard attributes,which are a static attributes, namely a description 136 of value“College Logo Card” and contact channel 138 of value “Email.” There isalso a standard attribute which is a parameterized attribute, namely,expiration date 140 of default value “Jun. 30, 2005.” Promotion template130 also has custom attributes which are parameterized attributes,namely, college 142 of default value “Harvard,” and promo rate 144 ofdefault value “5.25%.”

The user produces promotion instance 146 from the promotion template 130using all of the default values. Based on the promotion code format 134,the promotion code generator generates the unique promotion code“ABC-123.” The user assigns promotion instance 146 to a group of Harvardgraduates, producing a promotion version 148 with the same values as thepromotion instance 146. The user assigns promotion instance 146 to agroup of Princeton graduates, but changes the default values ofparameterized attributes expiration date 140 and college 142 to producepromotion version 154. Specifically, when the user produces promotionversion 154, expiration date 140 of default value “Jun. 30, 2005” ischanged to value “Sep. 30, 2005,” and college 142 of default value“Harvard” is changed to value “Princeton.” New values “Sep. 30, 2005”and “Princeton” are assigned to expiration date 150 and college 152 ofpromotion version 154, respectively. The other static attributes ofpromotion version 154 remain the same as the corresponding attributes inpromotion instance 146. Both promotion versions 148, 154 have the samepromotion code of value “ABC-123.” Thus, promotion versions 148, 154 arepermutations of a promotion instance 146.

The user can re-use the promotion template 130 to produce a promotioninstance 156 with different attribute values. Here, the user has changedthe value of static attribute “contact channel” 138 from “Email” to anew value “Mail.” Values of all other attributes remain unchanged. Whenthe user produces the promotion instance 156, the promotion managementsoftware treats promotion instance 156 as a separate promotion instancefrom the promotion instance 146. There is a unique promotion code 158 ofvalue “ABC-124” for promotion instance 156.

Promotion templates can be used to produce new promotion instances whenthe promotion template is “active.” A promotion template, once it hasbeen used to produce one or more promotion instances, can be “retired”(but not deleted). Retired promotion templates can no longer be used toproduce additional promotion instances, but are still available forreporting and system table integrity.

Referring to FIG. 10, while the user can manually populate the values ofthe parameterized attributes with a constant value, as discussed above,the values of the parameterized attributes 160 can also be populatedfrom a database or list, e.g., database 24 (FIG. 1) or by computingvalues based on data from a database (i.e., calculated fields).Populating the values from data may be desirable to support a largenumber of promotions versions to be assigned to target groups.“Data-driven” parameterized attribute fields 162 are, e.g.,“FavoriteTrips.From” and “FavoriteTrips.To” and correspond with the“From” and “To” columns of the “driving table” (Favorite Trips) in thedatabase. The data in the driving table is matched to the targetentities by a code (e.g., Customer ID) and each row of the driving tablecorresponds to one promotion version given to the target recipient.Thus, by mapping the data to the data-driven parameterized attributefields, the promotion management software 14 can automatically produce,at run time of a campaign flowchart, the promotion versions needed,without the user manually producing promotion versions, as discussedabove.

Since any target entity can have a variable number of rows associatedwith it in the driving table, data-driven parameterization providestruly data-driven personalization of promotions. For example, customer#3254678 is offered three different flight promotions (Boston to NewYork, Boston to Orlando, and New York to London) while customer #8452353is offered four flight promotions (Atlanta to Chicago, Atlanta to LosAngeles, Atlanta to San Diego, and Atlanta to Boston). This solutionprovides tremendous scalability in one-to-one promotion personalization,while retaining full granularity of promotion information for trackingpurposes (to be discussed below).

Custom validation of standard and custom attributes of promotioninstances and promotion versions can be implemented to ensure that thecombination of values chosen for a particular promotion instance orversion meets the requirements of the company. These validation checkscould verify numeric/date/currency ranges, compare attribute values,enforce specific dependencies between multiple fields, provide security(which user is allowed to make certain types of changes).

Referring to FIGS. 11 and 12, a group management process 40 b thatmanages the assignment of promotion instances to groups is shown.Groups, and in particular target groups, are collections of contactentities to be targeted in the marketing campaign. Group managementprocess 40 b can be implemented as either a top-down campaign definitionor a bottom-up campaign definition. Top-down campaign definition refersto defining a marketing campaign at a conceptual level (a description ofthe marketing campaign the user intends to implement). A top-downcampaign definition can support, for example, a marketing planner whohas access to volumes of raw data and is better suited to plan themarketing campaign at a conceptual level. This approach also allowspromotions to be produced before or after the targeting criteria havebeen established. A bottom-up campaign definition refers to defining amarketing campaign at an implementation level and provides a visualrepresentation of the treatments (promotions assigned to target groups)in a marketing campaign. Thus, bottom-up campaign definition cansupport, for example, a technical marketer to augment an existingmarketing campaign with additional promotions derived from day-to-dayinteraction with contact entities. Combined, the two-level planning andreview structure of both the top-down and bottom-up campaign definitionscan serve as quality assurance for the marketing campaigns as a whole.

Referring to FIG. 11 in a top-down campaign definition, the userproduces a structure to manage records 170. One such structure is atarget group spreadsheet. Other structures could be used, such as atable. The structure, as a target group spreadsheet includes rowsrepresenting the target groups in the marketing campaign. The rows logwhat promotion instances have been assigned to which target groups ofcontact entities. When the user desires to add to the marketingcampaign, the user generates a row 172 in the target group spreadsheet,assigns one or more promotion instances to the target group. The usercan assign the promotion instance and leave the specification of theparameterized attribute values to the user implementing the marketingcampaign, or he can specify one or more of the parameterized attributesto be used with each promotion instance.

The user also specifies group attributes of the target group in thetarget group spreadsheet. The group attributes are customizable andrepresent information about the target group that may be output as partof the contact list generated by the marketing campaign, the selectioncriteria or definition of the target group, or used for dataanalysis/reporting. Group attributes can be a group name/category, aunique group code to identify the target group, the minimum and/ormaximum group size, the group source identifier, the age, income,recency, frequency, or monetary values defining the target group. Whenthe custom group attributes represent selection criteria, these fieldsand their values can be made available in the campaign/flowchart toimplement the selection logic without duplicate data entry. These groupattributes are entered into the row.

The user determines whether a control group should be assigned to thetarget group 174. As explained above, the hold-out control grouprepresents marketing entities that would be statistically representative(e.g., similar in demographic or financial bracket) to the marketingentities of the target group. The user uses the control group to testthe effectiveness of the marketing campaign (i.e., measure theincremental benefit of sending the promotion, also known as “lift” overthe control group). If the user determines that a control group isdesired, then the user assigns a control group to the target group 176.The control group is measured against every promotion instance assignedto its target group. A control group can be used multiple times fordifferent target groups if desired. Next, the user determines ifgroup-level custom attributes are desired 178. The order of determiningwhether a control group is desired 174 and determining if groupattributes are desired 178 can be reversed if desired in the groupmanagement process 40 b.

Otherwise, if a control group is not desired 174, then the usercontinues to determine if group-level custom attributes are desired 178.If the user determines that group-level custom attributes are desired178, then the user assigns one or more group-level custom attributes tothe target group 180 and enters values for the custom attributes in thetarget group spreadsheet. Selected group-level custom attributes areavailable for every row in the target group spreadsheet. Then the userdetermines if there are more promotion instances to be assigned totarget groups 182. Otherwise, if a group-level custom attributes are notdesired, then the user determines if there are more promotion instancesto be assigned to target groups 182.

Group-level custom attributes are, in addition to the promotionattributes described above. Attributes are assigned to the target groupindependently from when the promotion instance is assigned to the group(they can be assigned/filled in at any time after the target group rowhas been produced). Group-level custom attributes can be assigned toboth target and control groups. The group-level custom attributesrepresent information specific to the group. For example, group-levelcustom attributes can be the target group size representing the minimumor maximum number of contact entities in the group. The group-levelcustom attributes can also be a group description or a designation thatthe group is of control group type or target group type. The user canalso specify the audience type of the contact entities of the group,whether the type be a cross-sell, upsell, defection, loyal, orretention. The group-level custom attributes can also be an audienceaffinity, designating the group as contact entities within a companydivision, or an audience source, designating where the source of thecontact entities. The audience source can be derived from a rental list,owner list, prospect list, or a lead list. The group-level customattributes can also designate a lead source, the lead source beingtelevision, road-show, radio, or direct mail.

Still referring to FIG. 11, if the user determines that there are nomore promotion instances to be assigned to target groups 182, then theprocess produces one or more campaign flowcharts 184 (i.e., theimplementation of the marketing campaign organized into different groupsof execution logic for convenience if desired) using the target groupdefinitions in the target group spreadsheet. In the illustrated exampleof FIG. 13, the campaign flowchart 220 allows a low-level user, such asa technical marketer to implement the marketing campaign based on thedefinition provided by the marketing planner in the target groupspreadsheet 222 (in some cases, the marketing planner and the technicalmarketer may be the same individual). The flowchart instances haveaccess to the group-level custom attributes of the rows of the targetgroup spreadsheet.

As shown in FIG. 11A, the process of producing a flowchart from thetarget group spreadsheet 184 can be broken down into the followingsteps. When the technical marketer produces a target group in theflowchart, he can then associate it with the appropriate top-down entryin the target group spreadsheet. This association causes the group inthe flowchart to automatically inherit all of the attributes of thetarget group defined in the target group spreadsheet, including theassigned promotion instances, control group, and group-level customattributes. The technical marketer initiates the target groupassociation process 184 a. This displays a list of the target groupsentries from the target group spreadsheet (this can be filtered to showonly the entries that have not yet been associated with another group ofa flowchart). The technical marketer then chooses a target group entryto associate with the current flowchart group 184 b. The groupautomatically inherits the target group spreadsheet entry's group nameand code. In addition, when the technical marketer configures thetreatment of that flowchart group 184 c, the promotion instances andcontrol group, and group-level custom attributes from the target groupspreadsheet entry are automatically applied.

The user saves the target group spreadsheet and/or the campaignflowchart 186. Thereafter, the user can edit the information in the rowsof the target group spreadsheet and in the flowchart instances of thecampaign flowchart. If there are changes to the target group spreadsheet188, then the process mirrors the changes in the campaign flowchart 190.Similarly, if there are changes to the campaign flowchart 192, then theprocess mirrors the changes in the target group spreadsheet 194. Theuser saves the changes to the target group spreadsheet and/or campaignflowchart 186. In some implementations, the user can make multiplechanges to either the target group spreadsheet or the campaign flowchartbefore saving. However, the process will mirror the changes after asave.

Referring to FIG. 12, in a bottom-up campaign definition, the userproduces an overall representation of a campaign 196, which could bevisual, such as a nodal diagram, graph or as will now be discussed, acampaign flowchart. The campaign comprises flowchart instances 198, theflowchart instances being visual representations of the execution logicused to produce the intermediate groups and final target groups (e.g.,to handle selection, suppressions/exclusions, segmentation, sampling,audience-level switching or grouping contacts into households). Theflowchart instance also includes what promotion instances have beenassigned to which target groups of contact entities, as well as controlgroup assignments. When the user wishes to add to the marketingcampaign, the user generates a flowchart instance in the campaign,assigns one or more promotion instances to one or more target groups,and/or specifies group attributes of the target group(s). These groupattributes can be entered into the flowchart instance (or in the targetgroup spreadsheet).

The user determines whether a control group should be assigned to eachtarget group 200. If the user determines 200 that a control group isdesired, then the user assigns a control group to the target group 202,and determines if group-level custom attributes are desired 204.Otherwise, if a control group is not desired, the user determines ifgroup-level custom attributes are desired 204. If the user determinesthat a group-level custom attributes are desired 204, then the userassigns one or more group-level custom attributes to the target group206 and enters values for the custom attributes in the flowchart. Thenthe user determines if there are more promotion instances to be assignedto target groups 208. Otherwise, if group-level custom attributes arenot desired, the user determines if there are more promotion instancesto be assigned to target groups 208.

If the user determines that there are no more promotion instances to beassigned to target groups 208, then the process produces a target groupspreadsheet from the campaign flowchart 210. The target groupspreadsheet comprises rows with group attributes which are populatedfrom the group attributes of the flowchart instances of the campaign,i.e., the bottom-up entries, in addition to any top-down producedentries.

The user saves target group spreadsheet and/or the campaign flowchart212. Thereafter, the user can edit the information in the rows of thetarget group spreadsheet and in the flowchart instances of the campaignflowchart. If there are changes to the target group spreadsheet 214,then the process mirrors the changes in the campaign flowchart 216.Similarly, if there are changes to the campaign flowchart 218, then theprocess mirrors the changes in the target group spreadsheet 220. Theuser saves the changes to the target group spreadsheet and/or campaignflowchart 212. In some implementations, the user can make multiplechanges to either the target group spreadsheet or the campaign flowchartbefore saving. However, the process will mirror the changes after thesave.

The top-down and bottom-up campaign definition processes are describedseparately for ease of comprehension, but these two processes can bearbitrarily intermixed. That is, some target groups can be definedtop-down and associated with flowchart groups, some can be definedtop-down and not used by any flowchart group, and some can be definedbottom-up. All three of these states are visually differentiated in thetarget group spreadsheet to facilitate understanding and verification ofthe entire campaign development process.

Having defined the marketing campaign by assigning promotion instancesto target groups, the marketing campaign can be further customized andpersonalized to target the specific needs or desires of the contactentities in the target groups. Thus, promotion instances can producepromotion versions, which are permutations of the promotion instancesdepending on variations of parameterized attributes of the promotioninstances.

Referring to FIG. 14, the execution of the marketing campaign process 40c (in production as opposed to a “test run”) produces a treatmentinstance 240, which is the intersection of a target group 242 (marketingentities being promoted to or treated, which may be a specified list ofaudience IDs or a group with unspecified details (e.g., mass marketingwhere the count of target entities may be known, but the specificidentities are not).), a promotion version 244 (of promotion instance246 given to the group), and a run time 248 (the specific date/time themarketing campaign flowchart is run). When the user runs the marketingcampaign process 40 c and assigns the promotion instance 246 to thetarget group 242, the user specifies the values of the parameterizedattributes, as discussed earlier, producing promotion version 244.

Once the campaign is run and the treatment instance is produced,treatment code generator 68 (FIG. 5) generates a unique treatment codeto identify the treatment instance 206, e.g., “ABCDEFGH” for thetreatment instance, based on the treatment code format 64, e.g.,“aaaaaaaa”. The user can clear (delete) contact history by the runinstance by viewing and selecting from a list of run date-times (this isuseful if a marketing campaign was run in production in error or it waslater decided not to send out the promotions from the campaign).

Additionally, once the user produces a promotion instance, the user canretire the promotion instance. Retiring prevents further use of thepromotion instance, so that the user cannot assign the retired promotioninstance to any groups and any group already assigned the retiredpromotion instance will not be marketed (e.g., the flowchart willgenerate an error when run). The promotion instance no longer appears inthe promotion tree hierarchy. However, it is still available forreporting/analysis purposes.

Referring now to FIGS. 15 and 15A, once a marketing campaign is run 250,contact history process 40 d of the promotion management softwareproduces 250 a (FIG. 15A) tables of marketing campaign data to maintaina contact history of the campaign. Contact history process 40 d providesa historical record of every communication made to a marketing entityproviding detailed information on exactly what was given to whom, when,and how (in order to track responses). It also includes tracking ofevery contact entity held out from a promotion in a control group(required for inferred response tracking). Contact history may bewritten at the time that contact lists are generated (e.g., when theflowchart runs) or they may be deferred and written later (e.g., afteran approval process or confirmation that the delivery was completed).

Contact history can provide an accurate way to count the number of“interruptions” to a contact entity in view of the number of promotioninstances assigned to the contact entity (entries where an individual ispart of a hold-out control group are automatically eliminated from thiscount based on the entry's contact status). Accurate management ofinterruptions is critical for marketers to prevent customer fatigue(negative behavior, such as opting out from marketing communications ora decrease in response behavior) when the frequency of communications istoo high. If the user wishes to limit the number of contacts per entityover a given period of time, logging contact history according topackages can serve to help limit contact fatigue by accurately trackingthe number of interruptions. In addition, since contact history can growextremely large for an organization with many customers or prospects,the ability to compress this data without loss of information isdesirable. The combination of base contact history and detailed contacthistory provides this compression benefit whenever possible (i.e., allmembers of the same target group receive the same treatments), withoutlosing granular data when members of the same target group receivedifferent promotions.

Interruptions may refer to the number of actual communications, or“packages,” made to contact entities over a given contact channel andcan contain multiple promotion instances. A mechanism is provided in thecampaign management solution to define which contacts are consideredpart of the same package. For example, a package might be defined as allof the treatments generated within a single contact-style process boxcorresponding to a marketing campaign.

For example, suppose a contact entity receives multiple promotions in amarketing campaign. The multiple promotions can be sent over the samecontact channel, e.g., by direct mail, or over multiple contactchannels, e.g., a combination of direct mail and electronic mail. Inorder to track the number of interruptions made to the entity, theprocess 40 d treats the multiple promotions assigned through the samecontact-style process box as a single interruption, or “package,” asopposed to treating each of the multiple promotions assigned as aseparate interruption. Thus, in the case where the user promotes fiftydifferent promotions to a target group in a contact-style process box,i.e., in the same envelope via direct mail, each of the fifty promotionsare considered part of the same package, and constitute a singleinterruption to each marketing entity. In the case where the userpromotes thirty promotions over direct mail, and twenty by electronicmail, then by this definition, there are two packages since the user isinterrupted twice.

Contact history 252 includes a promotion version history table 254, atreatment history table 256, and a base contact history table 258. Eachtable comprises an aggregate of marketing campaigns executed over time(of both targeted groups and control groups). There is a separatecontact history table for each audience level (though these couldpopulate the same underlying physical database table). Audience levelsrepresent different types of marketing entities that can be contacted,including the household level, the customer level, and the accountlevel. In this hierarchy, households may contain one or more individuals(customers) and customers may hold one or more accounts (many-to-manyrelationship).

The promotion version history table 254 is a record of all promotionattribute values for each promotion version 266 for all marketingcampaigns (including the campaign 250) when they are executed. Eachpromotion version 266 is assigned a unique promotion version number 264.The promotion version history table 254 captures the values for bothparameterized and static attributes as assigned. A variation of thepromotion version history table can capture the parameterizedattributes, which can save tremendous storage space as static attributestypically do not change. Static attribute values can then be retrieveddirectly from the promotion instance definition (furthermore, theapplication could prevent the changing of any static promotion attributevalues after a promotion instance has been used in any campaign).

The promotion version history table 254 can be linked 250 b (FIG. 15A)via pointer 268 with the treatment history table 256 through thepromotion version numbers 270. The treatment history table 256 records250 c (FIG. 15A) treatment instances 270 produced when the marketingcampaign is executed 250, as discussed above. For each treatmentinstance 270, the treatment history table 256 records 250 d (FIG. 15A)the groupID 272 identifying the target group of the promotion version(as enumerated by the promotion version number 270). The run date andtime of the marketing campaign 274 also recorded 250 e (FIG. 15A). Eachtreatment instance 270 is assigned 250 f (FIG. 15A) a globally uniquetreatment code 276 for exact identification of the specific marketinginstance for tracking responses. Rows in the treatment table also couldhave custom attributes for tracking additional treatment details (e.g.,estimated size of the target group for brand marketing communications).

For every target group that is assigned a control group, there iscorresponding control treatment instance produced for every treatmentinstance (and subsequently linked to the treatment instance). Forexample, if target group G is assigned two offers A and B and isassigned control group C, the treatment history table 256 records twotreatment instances G-A and G-B (for group G receiving offer A and B)and two control treatment instances C-A and C-B (for group C receivingoffer A and B) where C-A is linked to G-A and C-B is linked to G-B.

The treatment history table 256 can be linked 250 g (FIG. 15A) 268 withthe base contact history table 258 through the groupID 272 and thepackage ID. When the marketing campaign is executed, the base contacthistory table 258 records 250 h (FIG. 15A) a row 278 to track whichcontact entities, identified by customer level custID 280, were assignedto what groups, identified by groupID 272, along with the contact dateand time 282. The contact date and time 282 is initially set to the dateand time the marketing campaign is executed, but the date and time 282can be updated to reflect subsequent updates to the record (e.g.,updating the contact status from “Attempted delivery” to“Undeliverable”) made with the contact entity, as described in furtherdetail below.

In a similar manner, the base contact history table 258 also tracks theentities assigned to control groups. The storage of group membershipinformation in the base contact history table 258 is highly compact whenall members of the same group receive the same promotion versions. Whenthis is not the case, the exact contact information is stored indetailed contact history (discussed below).

As discussed earlier, a “package,” designated in the base contacthistory table 258 as packageID 284, represents a single “interruption”of the contact entity. This can be represented as the multiple promotionversions assigned in a contact-style process box over a single contactchannel a marketing campaign, or it can be a value explicitly assignedby the user to group together multiple promotioninstances/communications. For example, as shown in the treatment historytable 256, promotion version number 113 is assigned to five groups,C201, C202, C203, C204, and C205 when a marketing campaign is executedon Jun. 1, 2005. Although the customers of the five groups arerespectively labeled with groupIDs of C201, C202, C203, C204, and C205,as shown in the base contact history table 258, the packageIDs for thoseentries are the same, namely, “78904.” If a marketing entity is a memberof more than one of these groups, the promotion versions from the samecontact-style process box assigned to their respective entities areconsidered one interruption.

The rows 278 of the base contact history table 258 also include acontact status (not shown). The contact status provides flexibility intracking the status of a contact entity that has been promoted. Eachcontact status defines whether or not it counts as acontact/interruption to the recipient. For example, a promotion version“served” to a call center representative's screen that has not yet beenpresented to the caller does not count as a contact. Once the promotionversion has been “read” to the caller, it may have a change of contactstatus to “Presented” which does count as a contact. In someimplementations, contact status is conducted at the package level. Insuch cases, the user updates contact status for all promotions withinthe package.

The user can customize the status entries associated with the contactstatus. For example, as shown in FIG. 15B, contact status tree 300 cantrack the status of a promoted contact entity. The contact status treecan be structured so that the user understands the hierarchical meaningof a particular contact status (i.e., there is only one path to anygiven status). For example, a row 278 could have a status of “served”when the promotion version is assigned to the target group and themarketing campaign is executed. If the user promoted the promotion overemail and, for instance, requested a read receipt, upon return of theread receipt, then the contact status could be updated to “confirmedcontact.” The update date and time 282 would be updated accordingly (thecontact date and time remains the same). If, by chance, a second userreviews the base contact history table and views the “confirmedcontact,” then, by virtue of the hierarchical structure of the contacthistory tree, the second user understands that “contact initiated,”“served” and “proposed” contact statuses were necessarily met. By thesame token, the second user knows that the contact could not have been“dropped.” It is possible to have customized contact statuses where thesystem has no knowledge of any hierarchy and contact history simplytracks the current contact status value. For each contact status value,the system can configure whether the contact status actually “counts asa contact” or not (e.g., “proposed” and “undelivered” would not count ascontacts, while “contact initiated” and “contact confirmed” would.

It is also possible to append additional rows to contact history toeffectively update the contact status, allowing the recording of thespecific date and time of each contact status change, though this cancause contact history to grow significantly. A special contact status isused for records written to contact history for control groups (and thuscan be easily filtered out when computing “interruptions”).

In some implementations, contact history includes additional tables (notshown) such as a group history table, a campaign history table, astrategic segment history table, and a detailed contact history table.The group history table logs changes to the target group spreadsheetentries (e.g., changes to group custom attribute values over time). Thecampaign history tracks changing values of campaign attributes over time(e.g., custom campaign attributes). The strategic segment history storesinformation about how the company divides the contact entities intogroups (i.e., records the membership of marketing entities withinstrategic segments such as high, medium, or low-value customer segments)over time. Thus, the process allows the system to accurately trackhistory and information for a variety of aspects related to a marketingcampaign so that at any given time, the system can reconstruct the stateof any marketing object within the system when a communication was madeto a contact entity.

The detailed contact history table is similar to the base contacthistory tables. There is (conceptually) one table per audience level.Detailed contact history tables are used in special cases to trackpromotions given to contacts on a data-driven parameterized promotionattribute basis (i.e., when promotions are personalized to the contactentity within a target group). This includes the tracking of detailedcontrol group information, where each recipient is held out as a controlfor the specific promotion versions he would have received if he had notbeen part of the control group. Detailed contact history tables alsotrack promotions that have been rule optimized to deter contact fatigue.Both of these cases track detailed history in the case where all membersof a target group do not receive exactly the same promotion versions.Members of the same target group may receive different numbers ofpromotions and different promotions, personalized based on the specificcontact entity's data. Detailed contact history tables also trackpromotions assigned to contacts on a real-time basis, where tracking thenumber of promotion presentations per contact entity is important.

Referring now to FIGS. 16 and 17, a promotion list process 40 e toproduce promotion lists is shown. A promotion list is a collection ofone of more promotion instances and can be used where ever individualpromotion instances are used (e.g., for promotion assignment to targetgroups). The promotion list includes promotion list attributes 350.Promotion list attributes 350 include a unique promotion list name 352and a promotion list description 354. The promotion list can be a staticpromotion list or a smart promotion list, both of which are describedbelow. The promotion list is stored on an electronic medium, e.g., theserver system hard drive or application database, and can be viewed in afolder tree view 356 (this view can be intermixed with promotioninstances). Promotion lists 358 and promotion instances are assigned anicon 360. Thus, when promotion lists are viewed in the folder tree viewof FIG. 17, the icon 360 can be used to identify the type of promotionlist, e.g., whether the promotion list is a static promotion list 362, asmart promotion list 364, or a single promotion instance 366.

Referring now to FIG. 18, a static promotion list is produced by using asearchable and browsable view (e.g., a folder tree view) 356 of thepromotion instances 368 stored in folders 370 on the hard drive of theserver 12 or application database 22 (see FIG. 1). The searchable andbrowsable view allows the user to search, view in a dynamic nested tree,drill into the folder pages, and browse thumbnail views and savedsearches. Search for promotion instances can be based on any promotionattributes as well as “inherent attributes” such as the creation orupdate date/time, owner, folder, promotion template, and securitypolicy. Based browsing or the results of the search, the user selectsone or more promotion instances to add to the static promotion list.Depicted are promotion instances within the “Recently Used Offers”folder. The user selects promotion instances “No Money Down E-mail,”“15% off Holiday Mailer,” and “Free Shipping Offer” from the folder.These promotion instances can be ordered up and down by the user toselect their display order/rank. The promotion instances of such astatic promotion list will not change until the user repeats thisprocess to add or delete promotion instances to the static promotionlist.

Referring now to FIG. 19, a smart/dynamic promotion list can be producedby querying 372 promotion instances to find promotion instances withmatching search criterias 374. The search criteria can be based onpromotion attributes, (e.g., Contact Channel, Expiration Date, Cost peroffer), other inherent attributes (e.g., owner, creation date, updatedate, folder, promotion template) and operators, e.g., (>, <, >=, <=, =,!=, begins with, contains, not contains, not begins with). Multiplesearch criteria can be connected via operators (e.g., AND, OR).

The user constructs a query 372 to send to the search process thatsearches the hard drive of the server 12 or application database 22 forstored promotion instances to retrieve. The retrieved stored promotioninstances will have an owner (CreateBy field) with value of “rkennedy,”“AND” channel with value of “Email,” as shown in FIG. 19. The “AND” isan example of using a search term that is a Boolean operator to causethe process to include both “rkennedy” and “Email” as search criteria374. The user can limit the search to specified folders and optionallytheir subfolders 376. The results can be sorted 378 in ascending ordescending order according to one or more specified fields. The resultscan also be limited 380 to the first N number of promotion instances asranked by the sorting criteria 378.

The sorting criteria 378 can be based on one or more attributes of thepromotion or a calculated field based on attributes of the promotion andmultiple attributes/calculated fields may be used to sort based on ties(e.g., select first in descending order based on promotion instancecreation date and then for any on the same date, then subsequently sortin ascending order by promotion cost).

The sort 378 and limit 380 features can be useful in limiting theresults to a maximum or minimum case. For example, suppose the userwishes to query all promotion instances for gold credit cards, but onlywants the promotion instance for the gold credit card with the lowestinterest rate. Thus, if the user sorts 378 results of promotioninstances for gold credit cards in ascending order by interest rate, andlimits 380 the results to the first hit, then the user can find, thepromotion instance for a gold credit card with the lowest interest rate.Another example might be to return the top three promotion instances ina folder ranked in descending order by offer score. The marketingcommunications to a particular group targeted by a monthly marketingcampaign can then be managed (e.g., maintained, updated, rescheduled)without having to actually edit the campaign (e.g., by simply by movingoffers in and out of this folder). This is a powerful concept inproducing periodically recurring marketing campaigns that can run in alights-out (i.e., without manual intervention) manner, dramaticallyspeeding up an organization's ability to scale and maintain a largenumber of campaigns.

If the user produces a smart promotion list, the query 372 willdynamically return matching promotion instances at the time the smartpromotion list is used (e.g., when a campaign is executed and promotionsare assigned to a group via a smart promotion list). Thus, withoutfurther user intervention, the process updates the promotion instancesof a smart promotion list according to the query 372. For example, asshown in FIG. 20, the promotion instances 380, 382 for a gold creditcard with the lowest interest rate 384, 386 may vary day-to-dayaccording to fluctuating interest rates. A smart promotion list 388 canbe updated without further user intervention to reflect suchfluctuations.

Another key example for smart promotion lists is in buildingoptimization rules based on promotion meta data (e.g., limiting thenumber of loan offers an individual may receive to three a quarter). Theoptimization rules regulate the use of limited marketing resources orlimited audience tolerance for marketing interruptions, to optimize, forexample, performance or profitability. As new promotion instances areproduced that are credit vehicles, they would automatically be picked upby the smart promotion list based on specified query conditions.

Once a marketing campaign has been executed, the user can then run aresponse tracking process to track and assess the performance of themarketing campaign and the promotions. The response tracking process 40f tracks duplicate and unique responses. The response tracking processalso tracks responses from customers that were originally targeted bythe marketing campaign, or alternatively, responses from customers as aresult of viral marketing, i.e., customers who come to know ofpromotions as a result of word of mouth or pass-alongs and provide asystem-generated code (e.g., campaign, promotion, group, or treatmentcode) with their response. The response tracking process also tracksresponses before or (for some configurable time period) after theexpiration date of the promotion. The configurable time period may be asingle value for the entire system or it may be different valuesdepending on the promotion type, the promotion channel, etc. (e.g., anorganization may want to track “late” responses for email offers for aperiod of three days, telemarketing offers for a period of seven days,and direct mail offers for thirty days).

Referring to FIG. 21, the response tracking process 40 f receives eventsor actions performed by audience members that may represent direct orindirect responses to promotion instances, as reported 400 to the systemthrough various contact channels such as direct mail, contact centers,branches or stores, or eMessaging, e.g., electronic mail. The responsestypes 402 can vary from inquiries related to the promotion version of atreatment instance, to sign-ups for trial periods for goods or servicesrelated to the promotion version of a treatment instance, to actualpurchases for goods or services related to the promotion version of atreatment instance.

The information reported 400 can be entered into an action table 404,one per audience level. Each row of the action table (an event) includesmultiple fields to be used to log the data associated with eachresponse. For example, action table fields include the audience field(s)associated with contacted entity making the response, and the date andtime of the response. The event also identifies the “response type,”system-configurable categories of responses (e.g., click-throughs,purchases, account activation, inquiry, etc.). Complex responsesrequiring a sequence of actions also can be handled by submitting anappropriate event and response type (e.g., purchase of two Disney™digital versatile discs (DVDs) after purchasing The Lion King™) to theaction table, based on detecting the presence of the appropriatepurchase transactions.

Each response type definition indicates whether it counts as a response(i.e., whether it rolls up as a response in performance reporting). Forexample, while a marketing user may track the number of inquiries for acredit card promotion, the number of applications, the number ofsubsequent activations, and the number of times the card is used withinthe first month post-activation, only some of these response types aretypically identified as counting as a response for roll-up or financialreturn on investment calculations (e.g., inquiries may not count, butcard activation may count; or click-throughs may not count, butpurchases may count).

The action table 404 also includes fields for the possible responsecodes (e.g., a campaign code, a promotion code, a group code, or atreatment code). These response codes are used to help identify one ormore treatment instances that were promoted to the contacted entity. Forexample, the response code could be printed on the coupon or otherpromotion item, and would be included in the data associated with theresponse. Other fields in the action table 404 include fields forpromotion attributes of the promotion, and these attributes can beeither static, parameterized, or both. For any of these fields, the userenters the data known from the response. It is possible that someinformation is not known, and the fields for the unknown information arenull.

The fields in the action table 404 also include a response type field.The response types may include a click-through, an inquiry, opening anaccount, a purchase, activating an account. Each row of the action table(an event) is associated with one response type. Therefore, multipleresponses to the same promotion, for example, an inquiry followed by apurchase, are two events (i.e., two row entries) in the action tablecorresponding to the two response types. In order words, responsesassociated with multiple action types, even responses from the samecontacted entity on the same promotion, are entered into the actiontable 404 multiple times. (If a response type hierarchy is defined andthere is only one path to any given response type, multiple entries arenot required for different response types and the occurrence of responsetypes prior to the currently reported response type can be inferred).

The fields also include a product type field, corresponding to code orother identifier of the goods or services promoted in the marketingcampaign, which can be compared to a list of products associated with apromotion instance for inferred responses.

When the response events are entered into the action table 404, theresponses are attributed 406 to one or more treatment instances. Asdiscussed earlier, treatment instances correspond to a promotion versionassigned to a group of contacted entities during the execution of amarketing campaign. Attributing responses to one or more treatmentinstances credits one or more treatment instances for triggering theresponse. Attributing 406 includes identifying 408 one or more possibletreatment instances to receive credit for the response, and distributing410 the credit between the one or more designated treatment instancesaccording to a set of rules, and recording relevant information aboutthe response 412, such as whether the respondent was in the originallycontacted group and/or whether the response date was on or prior to thepromotion expiration date.

Attributing 406 includes identifying 408 one or more possible treatmentinstances to receive credit for the response includes determining 410whether the response is one of two basic types of responses: a directresponse or an inferred response. For a response to be a directresponse, the response information received includes one or moreresponse codes. In other words, a direct response includes asystem-generated code that was sent out with the promotion (e.g., eithera campaign code, a promotion code, a group code, or a treatment code).These codes are matched to treatment instances through lookups of thetreatment history table or other contact history tables. An inferredresponse does not include response codes and can only be credited if thetreatment instance contacted the responder. In both direct and inferredresponses, promotion attributes reported with the response are used tofurther assist in identifying one or more possible treatment instancesto credit. Similarly, if a product code is reported with the response,the product code can be matched against a promotion instance's relevantproducts in a product table, the products being goods or servicespromoted in the marketing campaign. The promotion attributes and productcodes, if reported with the response, are therefore important inidentifying treatment instances in the inferred response case.

In some implementations regarding the direct response, if the treatmentcode is known with the response, then an exact and unique treatmentinstance can be identified (without any further information). This is adirect exact response. Otherwise, if the treatment code is not reportedbut other response codes are reported, it is foreseeable that multiplepossible treatment instances are identified. This is a direct inexactresponse. For example, if the campaign code is known, then the range ofpossible treatment instances can be narrowed to those treatmentinstances with promotion versions executed in the marketing campaignassociated with the campaign code. However, if the campaign containedmultiple promotion instances and/or ran multiple times, the exacttreatment instance is not known from the campaign code alone. In anotherexample, if the promotion code is known, then the range of possibletreatment instances can be narrowed to those treatment instances withpromotion versions of promotion instances associated with the promotioncode.

In some implementations regarding the inferred response, if no responsecodes are known with the response, then a unique treatment instance oreven multiple possible treatment instances are not immediatelyidentified. Inferred response cases can represent instances of “viralmarketing” where the marketing campaign did not target the customer but,for example, through word of mouth, the customer learned of thepromotion and took the desired behavior. In such cases, the user relieson other data fields in the action table to infer multiple possibletreatment instances. For example, the response would likely containinformation regarding the product or custom promotion attributesassociated with the promotion. Using the information known from theresponse, the user can infer that one or more treatment instances wereresponsible for eliciting the desired behavior and can therefore becredited.

Referring to FIGS. 21A to 21C, the response tracking process 40 fretrieves and processes one row (event) at a time from the action table,until all rows have been processed 450 (though described hereconceptually as processing a single row at a time, response processingis not limited to a single row at a time as all rows can be processedsimultaneously in a batch process). If one or more response codes havebeen provided 422 (direct response), then any non-NULL codes andpromotion attributes are used to match against treatment instances tofind the set of possible treatment instances to receive credit for thisresponse event 424. From the set of possible treatment instances, if anytreatment instance contacted the responder 426, then all treatmentinstances that did not contact the responder are discarded 428. If noresponse codes are provided in the event 422 (inferred response), thenthe provided promotion attributes are matched against only treatmentinstances that contacted the responder 430.

From the set of possible treatment instances, if the response date isbetween the effective and expiration dates of any treatment instances432, then discard any treatment instances in which the response was notwithin the valid date range 434. For the remaining treatment instances,record all the appropriate response tracking information using multiple,simultaneous attribution methods.

Attributing responses to one or more treatment instances 436 includesdistributing the credit among the one or more remaining treatmentinstances according to a set of rules. The rules include best match,fractional attribution, multiple attribution and custom attribution. Inaddition, response attributes are recorded identifying whether theresponder was within the originally contacted target group or not, andwhether the response date was within the valid promotion effective andexpiration dates. Data also is captured to allow the user to count thenumber of total responders and/or the number of unique responders.Additionally, the marketing user can choose to track other responderstate information (e.g., the response channel or the current credit cardbalance after a purchase stimulation campaign) as additionally trackedfields.

Once the attribution methods and response attributes have been captured,the user can choose to view any combination of attributionmethod(s)/attribute(s) for any response type(s) in performance reports.For example, one report could show different columns for 1) the numberof unique individuals that were originally contacted that purchased(purchase is an example of a response type) prior the expiration date,2) the total number of responses by individuals that were originallycontacted that purchased prior the expiration date, and 3) the totalnumber of purchases by individuals due to pass-alongs (not originallycontacted) that purchased prior to the expiration date, and 4) the totalnumber of purchases by individuals (originally contacted or not) afterthe expiration date.

“Best match” attribution credits a single treatment instance for theresponse. In the simplest case where the response is a direct exact typeresponse, best match directly credits the treatment instance identifiedby the response tracking process to be the one treatment instanceresponsible for the desired behavior. In other cases, for example wherethe response is a direct inexact type response or an inferred typeresponse which can be attributed to multiple treatment instances, bestmatch will break the tie and credit a single treatment instance based onsome configurable criteria (e.g., the treatment instance that promotedto the customer most recently). All other treatment instances receivezero credit under the best match attribution method. For example, if thesame promotion is sent to the same individual multiple times over aperiod of time producing multiple treatment instances, without the meansto discern from among the competing treatment instances, best match willcredit the treatment instance last sent to the individual. If multipletreatment instances tie based on the specified criteria (e.g., multipletreatment instances were sent on the same latest date for “mostrecent”), then best match randomly credits any one of the tied treatmentinstances.

“Fractional attribution” credits one or more treatment instances anequal fraction for the response. Again, in the simplest case where theresponse is a direct exact type response, fractional attributiondirectly credits the treatment instance designated by the responsetracking process to be the one treatment instance responsible for thedesired behavior. Since the direct exact case identifies only onetreatment instance, the treatment instance is assigned 1/1 credit. Inother cases, again for example where the response is a direct inexacttype response or an inferred type response which can be attributed to Ntreatment instances, fractional attribution will assign each of the Ntreatment instances 1/N credit (e.g., if there are three treatmentinstances to receive credit for fractional match, each will receive 1/3or 0.3333 credit).

“Multiple attribution” assigns multiple treatment instances full creditfor the response. For example, where the response is a direct inexacttype response or an inferred type response which can be attributed to Ntreatment instances, multiple attribution will assign each of the Ntreatment instances full credit (1.0).

“Custom attribution” distributes credit to multiple treatment instancesbased on a user-defined scheme. Given the set of matching treatmentinstances and relevant information (e.g., the contact date for eachtreatment instance, the purchased product, etc.), the custom attributionscheme returns a numeric value representing the credit for eachtreatment instance. For example, custom attribution can be based on amathematical formula that credits multiple treatment instances based onexponentially decaying weights assigned from “most recent” to “leastrecent.” Or given a product hierarchy, a purchased product closest tothe promoted product can be given greater credit than a treatmentinstance where the purchase is less related (e.g., purchasing a TV couldcredit a promotion targeting TVs more than a promotion targetingelectronics in general, or a promotion targeting any product). It isevident that an infinite number of custom attribution possibilities arepossible.

The response tracking process also can handle different levels ofresponse based on known hierarchies in various dimensions (e.g.,customer or product), where each category rolls up fully into a singleparent (many-to-one relationships). If the product hierarchy is knownand described to the system (e.g., a Panasonic™ DVD player model Xbelongs to Panasonic™ DVD players which belongs to DVD players, whichbelongs to Video, which belongs to Electronics, etc.), then a promotioninstance promoting the specific model X can trigger different responselevels, depending on the actual product purchased. The marketing usercan report on the number of responders that purchased exactly model X;the number of responders that did not purchase model X, but purchased aPanasonic™ DVD player; the number of responders that did not purchase aPanasonic™ DVD player, but purchased a DVD player, and so on. Similarly,when a specific individual in a household is targeted, the marketinguser wants to know how many times the targeted individual responded vs.how many times another member o the same household responded. Inbusiness-to-business scenarios, the customer dimension hierarchy can besignificantly more complex (individual, group, department, division,company, etc.).

The response tracking process 40 f also tracks control group responses,which are always inferred responses (as the recipients were given nocodes to return). As discussed above, hold-out control groups or controlgroups allow the user to gauge the effectiveness of marketing campaignstargeting actual contact entities. Control groups gauge whether entitiesof a control group perform the desired behavior (e.g., inquire,activate, purchase) on a desired product (e.g., money-market account,plasma television, Boston-Los Angeles flight) without having beenpromoted the product/service. In this regard, response tracking forcontrol groups is similar to response tracking for inferred responses,as control group response tracking is performed only of the promotionattributes, and response codes are ignored, if any. That is, theresponse codes reported with the response correspond to treatmentinstances of promotion version actually promoted to contacts and do notcorrespond to treatment instances of the control group.

After attributing response to treatment instances 436, if any responsecodes were provided 438, those response codes are removed 440. Controltreatment instances containing the responder (i.e., where the responderwas in the control group) are identified by matching promotionattributes 442. If the response date is between the effective andexpiration dates of any control treatment instances 444, then discardany control treatment instances in which the response was not within thevalid date range 446. The identified treatment instances of the controlgroups can then be credited and the appropriate response attributesrecorded 448. Control group response tracking can be accomplished with,but is not limited to, multiple attribution. After control treatmentinstances have been credited, the response tracking process 40 f returnsto process the next event in the action table 420.

In addition to direct and inferred responses, the response trackingprocess can also track personalized promotions through data-drivenparameterization and its associated controls. As described above,data-driven promotion personalization refers to the case where contactentities of a single target group receive promotion versions based onparameterized promotion attributes with values populated from a list ortable containing personalized data for each of the contact entities. Forthe data in personalized case to be meaningful for analysis, theresponse reports information pertaining specifically to the data-drivenparameterized promotion attributes. The detailed contact history tablerecords the exact promotion version(s) received by each member of thetarget group (or the offer versions a member of the control group wouldhave received). The response tracking process 40 f is then the same aspreviously described, except that for each treatment in the treatmenthistory table 256 (FIG. 15), a flag identifies whether correspondingcontact history data resides in the contact history table 258 or thedetailed contact history table (not shown in FIG. 15).

In FIG. 20, the action table can be used to produce one or more responsetables 414 with rows to log the response attribution data and theresponse attributes data. A response table is (conceptually) producedfor each audience level. Therefore, for example, there can be a responsetable for the household audience as identified by the householdID, onefor the customer level as identified by the custID, and one for theaccount level as identified by the accountID (note that these could besame underlying physical table if desired). The response table permitsthe user to review the data from the marketing campaign to assesscampaign performance based on, for example, return on investment or anyother economic, business, or investment model. To assist the user inthis regard, the response tracking process can produce varied responsetracking reports. As examples, reports can include detailed responsetype information. Reports can be generated according to time, group,campaign, channel, promotion instance, or promotion version attributes.Reports can be group-based (i.e., reporting the number of responses inview of the number of groups in a campaign or any group-level customattribute) or promotion-based (i.e., reporting based on the differentpromotions within a campaign or any promotion custom attribute). Reportscan also show the effectiveness of a given promotion by the number oftargeted responders in view of the number of viral (non-targeted)responders. Reports can also show control group data and can calculatelift over the control group. Reports can be configured to display uniquevs. duplicate counts. In some implementations, reports include data fromany combination of the above.

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, byway of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, andany one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, aprocessor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory ora random-access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer area processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devicesfor storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will alsoinclude, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer datato, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g.,magnetic, magneto optical disks, or optical disks. Information carrierssuitable for embodying computer program instructions and data includeall forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of examplesemiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memorydevices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks;magneto optical disks; and CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor andthe memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in special purposelogic circuitry.

To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments can be implementedon a computer having a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) orLCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, for displaying information to theuser and a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball,by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds ofdevices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; forexample, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensoryfeedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback;and input from the user can be received in any form, including acoustic,speech, or tactile input.

Embodiments can be implemented in a computing system that includes aback end component, e.g., as a data server, or that includes amiddleware component, e.g., an application server, or that includes afront end component, e.g., a client computer having a graphical userinterface or a Web browser through which a user can interact with animplementation of embodiments, or any combination of such back end,middleware, or front end components. The components of the system can beinterconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication,e.g., a communication network. Examples of communication networksinclude a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN), e.g.,the Internet.

The system and method may use the “World Wide Web” (Web or WWW), whichis that collection of servers on the Internet that utilize the HypertextTransfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a known application protocol thatprovides users access to resources, which may be information indifferent formats such as text, graphics, images, sound, video,Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), as well as programs. Uponspecification of a link by the user, the client computer makes a TCP/IPrequest to a Web server and receives information, which may be anotherWeb page that is formatted according to HTML. Users can also accessother pages on the same or other servers by following instructions onthe screen, entering certain data, or clicking on selected icons. Itshould also be noted that any type of selection device known to thoseskilled in the art, such as check boxes, drop-down boxes, and the like,may be used for embodiments using web pages to allow a user to selectoptions for a given component. Servers run on a variety of platforms,including UNIX machines, although other platforms, such as Windows2000/2003, Windows NT, Sun, Linux, and Macintosh may also be used.Computer users can view information available on servers or networks onthe Web through the use of browsing software, such as NetscapeNavigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mosaic, or Lynx browsers. Thecomputing system can include clients and servers. A client and serverare generally remote from each other and typically interact through acommunication network. The relationship of client and server arises byvirtue of computer programs running on the respective computers andhaving a client-server relationship to each other.

A number of embodiments have been described. Nevertheless, it will beunderstood that various modifications may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the application. Other embodiments are withinthe scope of the following claims.

1-49. (canceled)
 50. A computer implemented method for response tracking, comprising: receiving, by a computer hardware system, a plurality of responses from contact entities to a plurality of promotions generated for a marketing campaign; and generating, by the computer hardware system and for each of the plurality of promotions, an attribution credit, wherein the attribution credit for a particular promotion is based upon a number of responses, from the plurality of responses, attributable to the particular promotion.
 51. The method of claim 50, wherein each of the plurality of promotions are assigned to a respective group of contact entities.
 52. The method of claim 50, wherein the attribution credit for a particular response is attributed to more than a single promotion.
 53. The method of claim 50, wherein the attribution credit is divided among the plurality of responses based upon attribution rules.
 54. The method of claim 53, wherein the attribution rules include at least two of: a best match corresponding to a single promotion fully credited for the particular response; a fractional match corresponding to N promotions each credited 1/N for the particular response; a multiple match corresponding to N promotions each fully credited for the particular response; and a custom match corresponding to N promotions each credited for the particular response according to a pre-determined credit distribution routine.
 55. The method of claim 50, further comprising determining whether the response is a direct response or an inferred response.
 56. A computer hardware system configured for response tracking, comprising: at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to initiate and/or perform: receiving a plurality of responses from contact entities to a plurality of promotions generated for a marketing campaign; and generating, for each of the plurality of promotions, an attribution credit, wherein the attribution credit for a particular promotion is based upon a number of responses, from the plurality of responses, attributable to the particular promotion.
 57. The system of claim 56, wherein each of the plurality of promotions are assigned to a respective group of contact entities.
 58. The system of claim 56, wherein the attribution credit for a particular response is attributed to more than a single promotion.
 59. The system of claim 56, wherein the attribution credit is divided among the plurality of responses based upon attribution rules.
 60. The system of claim 59, wherein the attribution rules include at least two of: a best match corresponding to a single promotion fully credited for the particular response; a fractional match corresponding to N promotions each credited 1/N for the particular response; a multiple match corresponding to N promotions each fully credited for the particular response; and a custom match corresponding to N promotions each credited for the particular response according to a pre-determined credit distribution routine.
 61. The system of claim 56, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to initiate and/or perform determining whether the response is a direct response or an inferred response.
 62. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable storage medium having stored therein computer usable program code for response tracking, the computer usable program code, which when executed by a computer hardware system, causes the computer hardware system to perform: receiving a plurality of responses from contact entities to a plurality a marketing campaign; and generating, for each of the plurality of promotions, an attribution credit, wherein of promotions generated for the attribution credit for a particular promotion is based upon a number of responses, from the plurality of responses, attributable to the particular promotion.
 63. The computer program product of claim 62, wherein each of the plurality of promotions are assigned to a respective group of contact entities.
 64. The computer program product of claim 62, wherein the attribution credit for a particular response is attributed to more than a single promotion.
 65. The computer program product of claim 62, wherein the attribution credit is divided among the plurality of responses based upon attribution rules.
 66. The computer program product of claim 65, wherein the attribution rules include at least two of: a best match corresponding to a single promotion fully credited for the particular response; a fractional match corresponding to N promotions each credited 1/N for the particular response; a multiple match corresponding to N promotions each fully credited for the particular response; and a custom match corresponding to N promotions each credited for the particular response according to a pre-determined credit distribution routine.
 67. The computer program product of claim 62, wherein the computer usable program code further causes the computer hardware system to perform determining whether the response is a direct response or an inferred response. 